Posts Tagged British

Costa Blanca News

January 24, 2015 at 8:35 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Costa Blanca News. Serving the English speaking community in Spain for over 40 years.

Costa Blanca News

Costa Blanca News
TOWARDS the end of last year some of my extended family and I spent a fortnight near Allicante on the Costa Blanca. The Costa Blanca – the ‘White Coast’ – itself covers around 120 miles of beautiful Mediterranean coastline in South East Spain. It runs from from Dénia in the north to Pilar de la Horadada in the South. It’s known as Spain’s most popular year-round holiday area.

According to one popular English language web-site (1) the Costa Blanca runs “along the province of Alicante, it can be divided into two clearly distinct areas of scenery: to the North, a curtain of mountains running closely parallel to the sea, dropping away to form sheer cliffs and secluded pebble coves: to the South, a vast plain of sands, dunes, palm groves and saltpans make up a backdrop for the beaches.”

One day, and out of the blue, we decided to visit Benidorm – sometimes called the ‘Manhattan of Spain’ because of its skyline – which was about 20 odd miles away from where we were staying. As noted in an earlier review (2) of the well-known holiday resort, “I’d heard a lot about this popular holiday resort – good, bad and indifferent – and I wanted to see what it was like first hand.” However, I was disappointed with Benidorm. For me, it had “just about enough to remind us that we were in Spain.”

However, one bright spot was the number of English language papers available. I get myself into a bit of a routine when it comes to picking up local papers. As I noted sometime ago, it doesn’t matter “where the paper is from – anywhere in the English speaking world does me just fine.” (2)

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A Spanish travel guide’s map of the Costa Blanca. Because of its climate it is one of Spain’s main holiday destinations.

Probably the best paper that I came across on my visit to Benidorm was the Costa Blanca News. Produced on a weekly basis it has going for over 40 years and serves “the English speaking community in Spain.” My issue covered the period 5 – 11 September 2014. At €2 for 110 pages plus a free 32 page Med TV Guide I thought that it was fantastic value.

Like all local papers, the Costa Blanca News covers a little bit of everything – and more! I was really surprised at the number of features it carried. These included The Brit Scene, Vox Pop and Loose Women. I was also particularly impressed by the dozen or so pages devoted to both Spanish and British sporting events. And although the paper seems to be predominately centred around what’s happening in Benidorm, I was pleased to note that small towns – such as L’Alfàs del Pi, Finestrat and Los Alcázares – were also featured in a news round up.

Of great interest was the What’s On guide. It consisted of nearly 30 pages and was sub-divided into several sections including an alphabetically arranged town listing section, market days, gig guide, theatre, clubs and charities.

Two features in the Costa Blanca News stood out for me – The Brit Scene by an unnamed author and CB Live by Barry Wright. The former included an anti-PC polemic whilst the second was a look at the oh-so ‘right on’ Danish mod/punk band, The Movement. Ironically, both took what appeared to be diametrically opposing views, but I enjoyed them none-the-less!

The Brit Scene’s first two paragraphs set the scene of its anti-PC article:

“The World is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

This – or something very similar – was said by Albert Einstein and it is very significant in today’s climate of sex abuse gangs, jihadis, weak governments and the liberal pursuit of a harmonious multicultural society.”

The article expanded on these themes and in particular how the fear of being called a ‘racist’ effectively paralysed all state agencies thus allowing the Rotherham sex scandal to continue unchecked. I found much of this article very interesting – although it didn’t say anything that I didn’t know – but sadly it didn’t prescribe any cure to any of Britain’s ills.

The feature on The Movement also caught my eye. A highly political band, the trio’s musical influences include The Jam, The Who and The Clash. Politically their influences “range from Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Marx to Joe Strummer and Paul Weller.”

I enjoyed their polemic on Globalism: “There’s a new and constantly growing generation of young kids interested in political questions, expressing deep fundamental criticism and rejection of the global effects of capitalism and its mechanisms of exploitation, war and oppression – young people searching for truth and enlightenment in times of total manipulation, lies and darkness.”

Despite this The Movement offered no answer to the menace of Globalism! Are they just anti-Capitalist posers, full of ‘leftist’ empty rhetoric? (Personally, some of the most strident critiques of capitalism that I’ve read recently have come from people who’d describe themselves as ‘Third Millennium Fascists.’) Maybe they should just stick to music – check them out on YouTube, and look out for excellent tracks like Losing You and It’s All In Your Mind

When I was in Benidorm I looked out for any signs of history, heritage and culture but couldn’t find much on offer. Therefore I was intrigued to read in the Costa Blanca News about the Moors and Christians Festivals. (4) The pictures and reports looked amazing – this is something that I’ll have to see in person!

I love the various indigenous cultures of the world. Indeed, I think that articles looking at famous battles, castles, buildings, traditional parades and celebrations around the world would make an excellent mini-series for Counter Culture. Maybe we should kick off with a report of the forthcoming Moors and Christians Festival in September? Indeed, I think that I’ll use that as an excuse for visiting the Costa Blanca again! Until next time then …

O YOU can check out the web-site of Costa Blanca News here http://www.costa-news.com/ its Facebook page of here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Costa-Blanca-News/152894188104472 and follow its Twitter feed here: https://twitter.com/costablancanews
(1) http://www.in-costablanca.com/
(2) https://countercultureuk.com/2014/10/20/two-weeks-in-spain/
(3) https://countercultureuk.com/2013/10/26/majorca-daily-bulletin/
(4) http://www.travelinginspain.com/spain_festivals/moors_christian.htm

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Body, Mind, Spirit and Time. Part Three: The Stuff of Dreams

January 26, 2014 at 3:47 pm · Filed under Spirituality/Philosophy ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Body, Mind, Spirit & Time

Part Three: The Stuff of Dreams

“Trust in dreams, for in them is the hidden gate to eternity.” Khalil Gibran

“Are you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream.”

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“We are such stuff/As dreams are made on; and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep.”

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

THERE is often the ‘new’ analogy of the brain being like a TV – picking up signals and turning them into sight and sound – or ‘reality’. The brain not creating consciousness but rather making consciousness manifest. So, the argument goes, when we die the TV might get turned off but the signal is still being beamed…with the idea of what we are and have been remaining intact. But initial thought: when you turn off the TV its ‘reality’ DOES disappear and this is the only reality by which we know and love ‘the box’. Those signals of Coronation Street or whatever is currently popular (I DON’T watch British TV!) – might still be floating through the ether – but…well…as far as we’re concerned they might as well be non-existent. Is ‘reality’ for us only viewed on a screen (our manifest consciousness)?

There are tiny tubes in the brain – microtubules of the brain cell – where quantum consciousness might exist (see the ORCH-OR model)…and might escape at death but are there other little brain tubes somewhere else they can migrate to? Does consciousness dissipate into the GREAT WIDE UNIVERSE – O it sounds so poetic but that’s surely not much solace to I, ME, YOU. We only seem to come alive when the TV is turned on. And interestingly – the TV takes time to ‘tune in’ too…in the old days it was called ‘warming up’…or in human terms, learning to understand, speak and develop language and thought.

What if we had a whole bank of TVs – like those in electrical appliance shops? Only not just say twenty or thirty screens all playing the same soap but an infinite number and each with a unique picture! The idea being that when we die (blank screen) we ‘migrate’ to another television. Not so much jumping ships as switching screens…but in this parallel universe there is also another ‘us’ too – isn’t there? Do we jump just as another TV is turned on…do we inhabit the same consciousness (in some form)…as a looker-in (Anthony Peake’s idea of The Daemon perhaps)? Do we jump in at a moment that the TV ‘loses its signal’ and we take the place of another ‘us’ – an ‘us’ that, presumably, will in an ‘infinity of opportunity’ also jump into another TV? Synchronised (and perhaps infinite) swapping of screens! And why aren’t we aware of our close, close other ‘us’s – or are we, indeed, subtly aware?

During a near-death experience we might argue that the quantum information held in the microtubules dissipates…when the person is revived they recall their ‘experience’. Now here’s an interesting dichotomy: if the dissipation is extreme then can the information subsequently coalesce? Even if it isn’t extreme what bonds it together. Can it dissipate as a ‘body’ of information – and therefore would that be dissipation at all? There are maybe two possible outcomes here: at death we dissipate into the UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS for want of a better name and effectively cease to exist – or we maintain a sense of ourselves – though God knows what that existence would be! Would space and time cease to exist for us, or would we enter an infinite dream-state? After all in dreams where there is no space or time except in the ‘reality’ of those dreams – we perceive that state to be, well, ‘real’. Consciousness has created a second reality. We are lying asleep hardly moving – and yet we are alive in our dreams…and only when waking do we acknowledge the previous ‘reality’ as dream state.

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Is this dream state another beamed consciousness or is it a created ‘reality’ from the first beamed consciousness – rather like many imagine (along with current mainstream scientific thought) that our brain creates consciousness. If the first beamed consciousness can create a second consciousness then that would put it on a level with the initial creative force – whatever it is that does the ‘beaming’. If the second consciousness (dream state) is also beamed – then what is stopping the brain having multiple consciousnesses (as in multiple personalities), which can exist in some folk? And if our mind – which is a beamed consciousness – can create a second consciousness…then why can’t that reflected ‘reality’ create further ‘realities’ too – dreams within dreams within dreams?

And we carry dreams (this other ‘reality’) with us, within us, don’t we…I can recall last night’s dream and a dream from last week (which seemed to be predictive); so one reality has a memory of another reality. In dream-state do we also share this reflective quality? Are we the stuff of dreams – are we the expression of some greater power, intelligence? When we die will we fall awake and pass through the ‘hidden’ gate to eternity? We shall see. We can only dream.

 

  • By Tim Bragg

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